ERIC ED374833: Factors Affecting Retention of New Students in Their First Semester: Fall 1992 Cohort.

25 Pages·0.61 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
JC 940 509
ED 374 833
Birdsall, Les
AUTHOR
Factors Affecting Retention of New Students in Their
TITLE
First Semester: Fall 1992 Cohort.
Diablo Valley Coll. Pleasant Hill, Calif.
INSTITUTION
Jan 94
PUB DATE
NOTE
25p.
Reports
Statistical Data (110)
PUB TYPE
Research /Technical (143)
MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
*Dropout
Age Differences; Community Colleges;
DESCRIPTORS
Characteristics; Dropout Rate; Dropout Research;
*Dropouts; *Enrollment Influences; Ethnic Groups;
*School Holding Power; *Student Attrition; Student
Behavior; *Student Educational Oojectives; Student
Motivation; Two Year Colleges; *Two Year College
Students; Withdrawal (Education); Working Hours
Diablo Valley College CA
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
their
To determine factors affecting new students in
in
first semester, a study was conducted at Diablo Valley College,
applied or
California, to draw a profile and track 4,251 students who
distributions were
were identified as new in fall 1992. Percentage
applied only,
calculated for the sample and for the sub-groups who
only, and
completed testing only, completed orientation courses
following: (1) 69.2%
dropped all courses. Study findings included the
(n=2,944) of the sample completed the semester, while 403 applied but
304
did not attend, 221 completed testing and failed to return,
Counseling 105A,
completed up to Counseling 105, 20 completed up to
(2) those who applied but did not
and 359 dropped all their courses;
of other than
attend were more likely to have indicated a goal
31 or more
transfer or vocational degree and were planning to work
(4) students stopping after testing were more likely
hours per week;
associate degree;
to be over 30 and planning to transfer without an
counseling course
(5) students who stopped after completing the first
29, and have an objective of a
were more likely to be between 25 and
to
vocational degree, general education diploma, certificate, or
(6) those who dropped all their classes were more
maintain a license;
have
likely to have an educational objective other than transfer,
than 30
graduated prior to spring 1992, and be planning to work more
the semester
hours a week; and (7) finally, students who completed
30 and have chosen transfer
were more likely to be under 20 or over
as their objective.
(KP)
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who had no prior
From the fall of 1992, 4,251 students new to DVC
college credit, it
college experience were identified. If they had prior
enrolled high school student prior to the fall of
was as a concurrently
1992.
Some characteristics of these students are;
under 20 years old, 68.4%.
women, 50.4%.
white, 64.1%.
want to transfer, 61.4%.
undecided, 11.3%.
62%.
graduated from high school in the spring of 1992,
64.4%.
planned to work eleven or more hours per week,
completed assessment, 75.5%
66.1%.
completed assessment, orientation and advising,
enrolled in more than three units, 65%.
completed more than three units, 52.2%.
the elementary algebra
of those tested 69.3% took either the computation or
test.
the semester and 30.8%
Of this cohort of students, 69.2% completed
different stages during the
did not. The loss of students occurred at
semester, as shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1
TOTAL
Dropped
Completed
Completed
Completed
Applied
All
Couns
Couns 105
Testing
Only
Courses
105A Onl
Onl
Only
1,307
359
20
304
221
403
30.8%
9.5%
8.4%
0.5%
7.2%
5.2%
3
2
In order to evaluate if any groups were disproportionately affected out
of this cohort, a percentage distribution has been calculated for the
cohort and for each of the stages in Table 1 based on age, gender,
objective, year of graduation, and hours
educational
ethnicity,
planning to work each week.
If we assume that the proportion of each of the categories of students
should be the same as the proportion within the cohort as a whole, we
should expect to have in each of the
can determine how many we
impact
categories. The recommended guidelines for disproportionate
difference between the expected value and
are that if the percentage
impact on a
the actual value is 20% or more, there is disproportionate
group of students.
Table 2 through Table 5 assumes where there is disproportionate
impact for a group of students, those students are ar risk.
THOSE WHO COMPLETED
AN APPLICATION ONLY
(No Shows)
TABLE 2
SUMMARY
it:
Applicants are more likely to be at risk of stopping after filing their application,
they are over 20 years old,
they are African American,
they do not plan to transfer or get a vocational degree,
they are not a recent high school graduate,
they plan to work 31 or more hours per week.
only.
Gender is not a risk factor for the applicants who complete an application
3
APPLICANTS WHO WERE TESTED ONLY
TABLE 3
SUMMARY
Applicants are more likely to be at risk of stopping after being tested, if:
they are over 30,
they are African American,
if their educational objective is to transfer without an AA Degree,
if they did not graduate or did not indicate a year of graduation.
o
Gender is not a risk factor at this stage.
The number of hours they plan to work per week does not appear to be a strong
factor at this stage.
41% selected the lowest level math test.
STUDENTS WHO STOPPED AFTER COUNSELING 105
TABLE 4
SUMMARY
Applicants are more likely to be at risk of stopping after completing counseling
105, if:
they are between 25 and 29,
they are African American,
their educational objective is a vocational degree, general education, a
certificate, or to maintain a license,
they graduated from high school in 1987 or 1991.
Gender is not a risk factor at this stage.
The number of hours they plan to work per week does not appear to be a strong
factor at this stage.
42% selected the lowest level math test.
5
4
STUDENTS WHO
DROPPED ALL THEIR CLASSES
TABLE 5
SUMMARY
Students are more likely to be at risk of dropping all their classes other than
counseling 105, if:
they are 20 or older,
their educational objective is other than transfer,
they graduated prior to spring 1992,
week.
o they planned to work more than 30 hours per
Gender is not a risk factor for this group.
Ethnicity is not a risk factor for this group.
Fewer Asian students dropped all their classes than might be expected.
49% completed assessment, orientation, and advising.
41% did not complete any of the matriculation components.
62% enrolled in 6 or fewer units.
Of those that were tested, 47% selected the lowest level math test.
5
In contrast to those who dropped out at some time between applying
for admission and the end of the fall 1992 semester, Table 6 provides
a profile of students who completed the semester.
STUDENTS WHO
COMPLETED THE SEMESTER
TABLE 6
SUMMARY
More students below the age of 20 or are 30 or over completed the semester
than might have been expected.
There is no significant difference based on gender.
Ethnicity was not a significant factor in completing the semester except for
African American students.
Students who chose transfer as their educational objective are significantly more
likely to complete the semester than might be expected.
Students who graduated from high school in the spring of 1992 were significantly
the
more likely to complete the semester than those who graduated prior to
spring of 1992.
Students who work more than 40 hours per week are less likely to complete the
semester than might be expected. Otherwise the hours worked per week is not a
significant factor.
7
6
Table 7 compares students who completed the semester with those
who dropped all their courses other than counseling 105 in terms of
matriculation status, unit load, and math testing level. Students who
completed the fall 1992 semester were significantly more likely to
have completed all three matriculation components, to have enrolled
in more than 6 units, and to have taken a math test above the lowest
level.
who
The reading and writing scores on the APS test for students
and
dropped all their classes are significantly lower than the reading
writing scores of the students who completed the semester.
MATRICULATION COMPARISONS
TABLE 7
PERCENT OF
PERCENT OF
STUDENTS WHO
STUDENTS WHO
COMPLETED THE
DROPPED ALL THEIR
SEMESTER
CLASSES
75%
49%
Completed assessment,
orientation and advisin
15%
41%
Did not complete either
assessment, orientation,
or advising
24%
62%
Enrolled in fewer than 6
units
25%
47%
Of those tested selected
the lowest level math
test
16%
26%
Reading level at English
96 on the APS test
13%
21%
Writing level at English
98 on the APS test
7
Table 8 shows that as the number of units enrolled increases so does
the students' rate of completion.
COMPLETION RATE BY UNITS ENROLLED
TABLE 8
COMPLETION
ALL NEW
COMPLETED
UNITS
RATE
THE SEMESTER
STUDENTS
ENROLLED
0 to 3
47.4%
429
905
3.1 to 6
71.1%
273
384
6.1 to 9
85.6%
320
374
9.1 to 12
93.1%
568
529
96.3%
12.1 to 15
1,001
1,040
98.7%
15.1 to 20
383
388
100%
more than 20
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H:Va921f92_rept.doc
APPENDIX
DEMOG4EX.XLS is the spreadsheet used to provide the summaries
and Table 'I through Table 7.
DEMOG7.XLS is a spreadsheet that shows the completion rate of the
various breakouts. It was used for Table 8.
10